Shadow of the Tomb Raider (The Movie)

I've been wanting to make this one for a long time, and the community finally voted for it, so here it is, the conclusion of the Tomb Raider reboot origin trilogy! Join Lara as she discovers what Trinity has been planning all this time. The fate of the world rests in her ability to stop Trinity. This video is available in HDR for compatible devices.

For those of you who haven't seen my work before, what I do is record footage from the cutscenes and gameplay of a game, and edit it down, focusing on telling the main story of the game. My goal is to create an experience that allows gamers and non gamers alike to fully enjoy the story. There are a lot of people out there who don't play games, and they're missing out on a lot of great stories, so I want to provide those stories to those people in a way they can enjoy. Then there are also some people who play games, but for whatever reason, haven't been able to play this specific one, and they get the same opportunity to experience a story they haven't seen before. However, these movies are also a great opportunity for those who have played the games as well! Normally, when playing a game, you maybe play for a few hours at a time, splitting it up into multiple segments. It can take days or even weeks sometimes to complete a story in a game. Viewing the story as a movie allows the entire story to remain fresh in your memory, and I've found that this significantly enhances how I appreciate the stories of these games.

But this is a movie, not a walkthrough. I'm not here to show every moment of gameplay, otherwise this would be a 13 hour video. I'm focusing on showing just what is necessary to tell that story. I include the minimum gameplay I feel is necessary, and I try to do it in a way that still feels cinematic, as much as possible. The problem is, with games, there's a lot going on on screen that can distract from the cinematic experience. With this game in particular, they've expanded the loot/craft system, so there's just a ton of item pickups throughout the world. As a movie viewer, you don't want to be distracted seeing button prompts for pickup up all this loot all the time, or gameplay objectives, or XP, or whatever. These things just constantly remind you that you're watching a game instead of a movie. So I've placed the burden upon myself to remove them.

That's right, remove them. This is something I feel sets me apart from anybody else on youtube. While some things like the saving/loading indicator can easily be removed by zooming in slightly, other things like item pickups require the use of visual effects. Whether I'm going frame by frame, replacing the offending object in photoshop, or using more advanced techniques such as planar tracking and removal in Mocha Pro, I have gone through and removed as much of these "gameplay indicators" as was possible. As far as I can tell, I've removed them all, but there may have been one or two that slipped by. I didn't remove the crosshair during shooting, however. Some things like gameplay objectives required the use of significant crop/zoom in order to hide them. In most cases, this is done fairly seamlessly, but there are a few cases where you will be able to tell I zoomed in a lot. Thankfully with the 4K source, the image is still pretty clear. Overall, I worked on 19,000 frames of VFX. I estimate that approximately 30% of gameplay was covered by VFX shots. On average, there was a new VFX shot needed every 11 seconds of gameplay, and that doesn't count the easier zoom/crop effects.

So there's a good reason these movies take me quite a bit of time to complete, but I think it's worth it, to deliver an experience that feels more like a genuine movie, than a game. If you like what I do, and want to support me, then definitely consider subscribing. Make sure to click the notification bell so you'll be notified when I come out with a new movie, and make sure to leave a like if you liked my video, and I also love reading all of your comments, and will answer any questions that I can.

If you'd like to support me further, I do have a Patreon page here:

  / andygilleand  

On this page, every supporter will gain access to a blog I update during the production of my movies, explaining where I am in production and giving estimates for things like release date and movie length. For those who decide to chip in $5 or more, I also offer full quality downloads of my movies, and for those who support at the $10 level or higher, I offer downloads for the HDR versions of my movies, as well as access to early cuts of my movies, before all of that VFX work happens in post production.

As always, if you like the game, make sure to support the developers by buying it if you can!

0:00:00 - Act 1 - Mexico
0:39:04 - Act 2 - Peruvian Jungle
1:49:12 - Act 3 - The Hidden City
3:01:31 - Act 4 - The Final Clue
3:43:38 - Act 5 - The End

#VideoGameMovie #TombRaider #ShadowOfTheTombRaider